The present invention relates to a device and method for two-dimensional detection of particles or electromagnetic radiation in single event mode.
The present invention relates to a device and method for two-dimensional detection of particles or electromagnetic radiation in single event mode. The present invention relates to a device and method for two-dimensional detection of particles or electromagnetic radiation in single event mode.
Two-dimensional imaging of microscopic particles or electromagnetic radiation is of increasing interest in fundamental and industrial research. For example, in metallurgy and materials science, two-dimensional imaging is used to derive information on the microstructure of a material.
A microscopic particle can be an electron, an atom, a molecule, an ion, or the like. As used herein, the term particle is also intended to encompass electromagnetic radiation (in general electromagnetic radiation behaves as a photon having particle-like properties when detected).
It is necessary for many applications to not only detect whether there is a particle, but also to determine the two-dimensional position of the particle. Photographic film has been used to record two-dimensional images of such particles for many decades, for example in the field of field ion microscopy (FIM). The use of video-cameras including CCD-chips for such two-dimensional imaging is also well-known.
Furthermore, for many applications it is necessary to measure the two-dimensional position and the time when the microscopic particle is detected. So called time-of-flight methods measure the time difference between the time when the primary microscopic particle is created in a reaction or emitted from a substrate and the time when the particle hits the detector. For time-of-flight experiments the primary particle is usually created or emitted from a substrate by a pulsed source, for example a laser pulse or an electromagnetic pulse induced on the substrate. This pulse will be referred to as the initial pulse. The typical flight time of microscopic particles is of the order of several nanoseconds to microseconds and, consequently, a precision of the order of one nanosecond or even less needs to be achieved for the time measurement.
A position-sensitive detector commonly used for two-dimensional imaging and for time-of-flight applications is a delay-line detector. The delay-line detector includes a stack of micro-channel plates (MCP) and a delay-line anode. A MCP or a stack thereof is a position-sensitive secondary electron multiplier. A standard MCP is from about 25 to 100 mm in diameter, about 1 mm thick and comprises hundreds of thousands or even millions of pores. A voltage of about 1000 V is applied over each MCP. When a primary incident particle impinges in one of the pores it starts an avalanche process by secondary electron multiplication in the pore due to the high electric field inside it. As a result of the high voltage necessary for secondary electron multiplication the MCP can only be used in high vacuum at less than about 10xe2x88x925 mbar. The primary particle is converted into a cloud of about 1000 to 10000 electrons in this single pore. Several of the MCPs are stacked to increase the amplification factor. Using a stack of two or three is common for single particle detection. The MCPs are preferably mounted directly on to each other. The avalanche distributes to a few pores when reaching the second and third MCP, because the pores of different MCPs are not aligned. But the secondary electron cloud is still spatially very localised in a few of the pores. The electron cloud leaving a stack of three MCPs typically contains 106 to 107 electrons. The electron leaving the rear side (facing the delay-line anode) of the MCP stack is accelerated onto the anode.
An example of a delay-line anode is a crossed wire anode. A crossed wire anode typically comprises a square metallic substrate acting as a holder, four insulating ceramic rods and two metallic wires. A ceramic rod is mounted on each edge of the square metallic holder and the first wire is wound around the metallic holder on the rods in one direction (x-direction), whereas the second wire is wound perpendicular to the first one (y-direction). All wires are insulated from the metallic holder and from each other by the rods. The metallic wires form a crossed mesh with a wire distance of about 0.5 mm. The electron cloud leaving the rear side of the MCP-stack is collected by the wires being typically 100 V more positive than the rear side of the MCP-stack inducing an electromagnetic signal. The signal is propagating along each wire in both directions. Four analogue amplifiers connected to the four terminating ends of the two wires amplify the signals arriving at the four terminating ends. A timing signal is picked up at the MCP and is amplified by a fifth amplifier. In a pure imaging application, four clocks realised by time-to-digital-converter channels (TDC) are started with the signal from the MCP. Each of the TDC channels is stopped by the signal of one of the other four amplifiers. The TDC directly converts the time difference between a start and a stop signal of each channel to a digital number which can be further processed with a computer. Thus, the method yields the signal propagation times on the two wires from the position where the cloud has hit the crossed wires to the terminating ends in the positive and negative x-directions (tx1 and tx2) and to terminating ends in the positive and negative y-directions (ty1 and ty2). Knowing the mean propagation speed (v) of the signal, the two-dimensional position where the electron cloud has hit the crossed wires can be reconstructed by a simple algorithm. The position in the x-direction (x) is a linear function of the times tx1 or tx2 and the position in the y-direction (y) is a linear function of the times ty1 or ty2. The position in the x-direction is also given by the time difference x=v/2*(tx2xe2x88x92tx1) and the position in the y-direction (y) by the difference y=v/2*(ty2xe2x88x92ty1). The typical position resolution of such a delay-line detector is 0.1 mm and the total propagation time (T) of the signal on a wire from one terminating end to the other is typically from 30 to 100 ns. All this information is stored for each single primary particle by a computer. Thus, a delay-line detector yields the two-dimensional position of each single primary particle and not only an integrated image (as, for example, a CCD-camera does) of many particles. Such a detection method is called single event mode. However, when two particles impinge on the detector within a shorter time difference than T it may occur that a signal of the second particle arrives at a terminating end before the respective signal of the first particle due to different positions. To register such particles at all a so called multi-hit TDC is used. A multi-hit TDC registers more than one stop signal on each channel after each start signal. When first and second primary particles impinge on the detector during T, two stop signals and hence two times are registered at each of the TDC channels following the identical start pulse as before. In principle, therefore, the multi-hit TDC enables two particles to be detected with a shorter time distance than T. However, a typical multi-hit TDC has a dead time for two consecutive stop signals of about 20 ns. When the second signal arrives at a terminating end within this dead time after the first signal the second signal is lost. Whether or not this occurs depends on the time difference between the first and the second particles and on their positions. If all of the four times tx1, tx2, ty1, and ty2 are registered for each of the two particles the position of both particles can be determined uniquely as long as the particles do not arrive at the detector at the same time within the time resolution of the TDC, typically from 0.5 to 1 ns. However, if one of the four times of the second particle is lost due to dead time the position reconstruction for the respective dimension fails. The mean time difference wherein the positions of two particles can be determined is known as the mean pulse-pair resolution. Such a detection set-up has a mean pulse-pair resolution that is substantially equivalent to the dead time of the TDC, i.e. approximately 20 ns. This restricts the maximum count rate detectable for a reasonable error rate to less than 50 MHz. This is disadvantageous since for higher count rates, which would be desirable, nearly all positions of particles are lost due to dead time.
For time-of-flight applications, the situation is similar. An additional fifth TDC channel is used to register the time-of-flight. The five TDC-channels are started with the initial pulse and one of the TDC channels is stopped by a timing signal picked-up at the MCP and the other four by the signals from the terminating ends of the two wires. Therefore, the time of flight of the primary incident particle is given by the fifth TDC-channel. The typical resolution for the time-of-flight measurement is about a nano-second. In time-of-flight applications, two particles are often detected within a single pulse cycle, i.e. are created by the same initial pulse, and in this case a multi-hit TDC is used. Again, the multi-hit TDC is started by the initial pulse and the TDC registers more than one stop signal without having a new start. When a first and a second primary particle impinge on the detector after a single start pulse, two stop signals and hence two times are registered at each of the TDC channels following the identical start pulse, which are:
at the first terminating end of the first wire: tx1a and tx1b;
at the second terminating end of the first wire: tx2a and tx2b;
at the first terminating end of the second wire: ty1a and ty1b;
at the second terminating end of the second wire: ty2a and ty2b; and
at the MCP pickup: tofa and tofb,
where a denotes the first and b the second registered time.
Again a typical TDC has a dead time of about 20 ns for two consecutive stops on the same channel. When two particles hit the detector within a time distance of the dead time of the TDC tofb is lost. Then the time-of-flight of the second particle cannot be determined by the fifth TDC channel. However, the time-of-flight of the second particle may still be determined by the sum tx1b+tx2b=sumxb or ty1b+ty2b=sumyb. But when additionally tx1b or tx2b and ty1b or ty2b are lost due to the TDC dead time, this reconstruction fails and the time-of-flight of the second particle cannot be determined at all. When even three or more of the times tx1b, tx2b, ty1b and ty2b are lost due to the dead time, the position reconstruction also fails. Thus, the position and time-of-flight determination using such an anode also has a dead time of about the dead time of the TDC.
The situation is exacerbated in time-focussed instruments when two ions arrive with the same flight time, within the timing resolution of the TDC, typically 0.5 to 1 ns. In this case, none of the times tx1a, tx2a, ty1a, ty2a, tx1b, tx2b, ty1b, ty2b may be lost and, therefore, one achieves two x and two y positions, but it will be impossible to link the two x position measurements and the y positions to the first and second particles. In other words, it is not known which x-position belongs to which y-position. This means that neither the position of the first nor of the second particle can be determined, although all of the eight times tx1a, tx2a, ty1a, ty2a, tx1b, tx2b, ty1b, ty2b are measured.
The mean pulse-pair resolution for such a time-of-flight experiment using a common crossed wire anode is also approximately 20 ns due to the above described disadvantages of losing information when two particles arrive closely after each other.
An example of a time-of-flight device used in metallurgical and materials science research is an atom probe (AP). The atom probe is a microanalytical instrument capable of analysing solid materials at the atomic scale. Three-dimensional atom probes (3DAP) permit the elemental reconstruction of a small volume of a solid specimen with near atomic resolution. A detailed account of the atom probe and its use in the microstructural and microchemical analysis of materials is provided in Atom Probe Field-Ion Microscopy, M. K. Miller, A. Cerezo, M. G. Hetherington and G. D. W. Smith, Oxford University Press, 1996 and Atom Probe Microanalysis: Principles and Applications to Materials Problems, M. K. Miller and G. D. W. Smith, Materials Research Society, Pittsburgh, Pa., 1989, which is made part of the disclosure herewith by reference. For atom probe analysis a strong and short initial electromagnetic pulse is applied to a very sharp specimen, which will typically be formed from a metal, alloy or semiconductor material. The pulse causes an emission of primary ions from the surface of the specimen by field evaporation. A position sensitive detector is located opposite to the specimen, which detects the position and the time of the arrival of the primary ions. By the detected position, the position on the surface of the specimen from which an ion was emitted may be determined. By the time-of-flight, the charge-to-mass-ratio may be determined, and hence the ion species. Repeating the process by applying a sequence of many electromagnetic pulses allows the three-dimensional atomic structure of the specimen to be determined.
A further development of a crossed wire anode includes a first pair of wires in the x-direction and a second pair of wires in the y-direction (a general description of crossed wire anodes is provided in S. E. Sobottka and M. B. Williams, IEEE Trans. Nucl. Science 35:348, 1988, which is made part of the disclosure herewith by reference). The first wire (reference wire) of each pair is typically about 100 V more positive than the rear side of the MCP. The second wire of the same pair (signal wire) is typically about 200 V more positive than the rear side of the MCP. Thus, the electron cloud emerging from the MCP is mostly collected by the signal wire. Such a wire pair is known as a Lecher line. Using a Lecher line avoids loss of signal during propagation on the wire in a manner similar to a shielded coaxial cable. However, each wire pair forming a Lecher line forms only one signal propagation line, sufficient for the reconstruction of the spatial position in one dimension. Thus, the two perpendicular wire pairs are generally equivalent to two perpendicular single cables with respect to the position determination. Accordingly, a single wire and a wire pair both form a single signal propagation line.
Other delay-line anodes use two printed metallic circuits or other two signal propagation lines to collect the electron cloud and propagate the induced signal instead of the crossed wires.
All of the above delay-line anodes have the disadvantage with respect to pulse-pair resolution, since the general method for the position determination is equivalent.
This disadvantage also applies to multi-wire detectors such as those used in position-sensitive avalanche detectors used for nuclear experiments (see A. Breskin, Nucl. Inst. and Meth. 196 (1982) 11) since these also use two sets of parallel wires to determine the x and y ordinates independently.
In the separate field of molecular ion structure analysis, the problem of ambiguities for determining positions of particles arriving simultaneously has been considered by W. Koenig et al., Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B10/11 (1985) 259-265, Elsevier Science Publishers B. V. Koenig et al. propose using three sets of parallel wires, which requires a total of 870 signal connections. It will be appreciated that such an arrangement would not be practical for a vacuum detector as used in, for example, an atom probe microanalyser. 870 preamplifiers are also required and this means that the design is very complex and costly. Koenig et al. are, furthermore, not concerned with the issue of improving multi-hit properties and mean pulse-pair resolution.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a device and delay-line anode and a method for detecting the position and/or the time of particles with improved multi-hit properties and/or improved mean pulse-pair resolution.
Accordingly, the present invention provides a device for detecting the position of a particle comprising a delay-line anode which comprises at least a first, second and third non parallel conductive members for receiving electromagnetic pulses each of the conductive members forming a propagation line for electromagnetic signals and each of the conductive members having a first and second terminating end at least some providing a propagated signal to analysing electronic circuits.
The device according to the present invention may be used as a vacuum detector in an atom probe instrument for microstructural and microchemical analysis of materials, such as metals, alloys and semiconductors or in a recoil ion or recoil electron momentum analyser (COLTRIMS). A detailed description of COLTRIMS can be found in Volker Mergel, PhD-thesis University Frankfurt, xe2x80x9cDynamische Elektronenkorrelationen in Heliumxe2x80x9d, Shaker-Verlag, 1996, ISBN 3-8265-2067-X which is made part of the disclosure herewith by reference.
The present invention also provides a method for detecting the spatial position of an electromagnetic pulse, which method comprises the following steps:
(a) providing at least a first, second and a third conductive member (4a, 4b, 4c) having each a first and second terminating end;
(b) receiving the electromagnetic pulse on a portion (30) of said first, second and/or third conductive members (4a, 4b, 4c);
(c) propagating said electromagnetic pulse on said conductive members (4a, 4b, 4c); and
(d) determining the local position of said portion (30) of said first, second and/or third conductive members by measuring the time of the arrival of said electromagnetic pulse at said first and/or second terminating ends.
The method according to the present invention may be applied to the microstructural and microchemical analysis of materials, such as metals, alloys and semiconductors.
The device and method according to the present invention result in a mean pulse-pair resolution which is significantly smaller than that associated with the prior art crossed wire delay-line anode.
The device according to the present invention preferably comprises a delay-line anode including three or more longitudinally extended conductive members which are not parallel to each other, each member having two terminating ends and capable of yielding redundant position information. The conductive members will typically be a signal propagation line, for example a single wire or a wire pair, preferably metallic wires. The conductive members are provided to receive an electromagnetic pulse, whereby the pulse is propagated along the conductive members in the direction of the two terminating ends thereof.
Two non-parallel conductive members are used to determine the two-dimensional position of the induced signal on the anode. Therefore, at first sight it appeared superfluous and, therefore, absurd to provide more than those two conductive members. However, it has surprisingly been found by the inventors that the additional and redundant position information resulting from those third or more additional conductive members can be used for a significant and advantageous improvement of the mean pulse-pair resolution of the device.
The further description of the device according to the present invention is restricted to three conductive members for the sake of clarity. It will, however, be appreciated that it is also advantageous to use four, five, or even more conductive members, yielding even more redundant information, being especially advantageous when more than two particles are detected.
In a preferred embodiment, the device according to the present invention comprises a stack of MCPs and the electromagnetic signal induced on the conductive members is caused by an electron cloud leaving the stack of MCPs after a primary incident particle has impinged on the stack of MCPs. Each conductive member is longitudinally extending and preferably comprises a metallic wire. The signal is propagated along the conductive members in both directions to the terminating ends. Preferably, an amplifier is assigned to each of the terminating ends of the conductive members for amplification of the induced signal. Preferably, a discriminator, for example a constant-fraction-discriminator, is used for precise timing of the signals. A stop channel of the TDC is preferably assigned to each of the discriminators registering the time between a given start pulse and the output signal from the constant-fraction-discriminator.
In a preferred embodiment for 2-dimensional imaging without flight-time measurement, a multi-hit TDC with at least six channels is used, started with the pickup from the MCP. The three conductive members yield the respective times for two consecutive induced signals by two primary particles (xe2x80x9caxe2x80x9d indicates the first TDC stop signal and xe2x80x9cbxe2x80x9d indicates the second TDC stop signal, xe2x80x9c1xe2x80x9d indicates the first terminating end of a conductive member and xe2x80x9c2xe2x80x9d indicates the second terminating end):
tx1a, tx1b, tx2a, tx2b at the first conductive member;
ty1a, ty1b, ty2a, ty2b at the second conductive member; and
tz1a, tz1b, tz2a, tz2b at the third conductive member.
The position of the induced signal is determined by the time differences at opposite terminating ends of the same wire:
xa=vx*(tx1axe2x88x92tx2a), ya=vy*(ty1axe2x88x92ty2b) and za=vz*(tz1axe2x88x92tz2a) for the first particle; and
xb=vx*(tx1bxe2x88x92tx2b), yb=vy*(ty1bxe2x88x92ty2b) and zb=vz*(tz1bxe2x88x92tz2b) for the second particle,
where vx, vy and vz are the mean signal propagation velocities on the respective conductive members.
Each one of the coordinates xa, ya, and za is linearly dependent from the two others as well as each one of the coordinates xb, yb, and zb is linearly dependent from the two others. Therefore, each two of xa, ya, and za and each two of xb, yb, and zb are enough to determine the two-dimensional position of each particle. Thus, even if one of the times of the second particle is lost, the position of both particles is determined. Even if two particles are impinging on the detector at the same time there is a large probability, due to the propagation time on the conductive members, that at least two of the three time differences xb, yb and zb of the second particle will be detected.
Surprisingly, it has been found that the mean-pair resolution can be improved by a factor of up to ten compared with the prior art crossed wire anode for a given error rate. The maximum detection rate for a given error rate is therefore improved by a factor of up to 10 with the device according to the present invention compared with a conventional crossed wire delay-line detector.
In a preferred embodiment for a time-of-flight application, a multi-hit TDC with at least seven channels is used, started with the initial pulse. A primary particle impinging on a stack of MCPs is converted into a cloud of electrons inducing an electromagnetic signal on the conductive members. Six of the seven channels are stopped by the signals arriving at the six terminating ends of the three conductive members and the seventh is stopped by the MCP pickup signal. The three conductive members yield the respective times for two consecutive induced signals by two primary particles (xe2x80x9caxe2x80x9d indicates the first TDC stop signal and xe2x80x9cbxe2x80x9d indicates the second TDC stop signal, xe2x80x9c1xe2x80x9d indicates the first terminating end of a conductive member and xe2x80x9c2xe2x80x9d indicates the second terminating end):
tx1a, tx1b, tx2a, tx2b at the first conductive member;
ty1a, ty1b, ty2a, ty2b at the second conductive member;
tz1a, tz1b, tz2a, tz2b at the third conductive member, and tofa and tofb at the MCP pickup.
Even if, for example, tofb, tx1b and ty1b are lost, the geometry of the delay lines mean that it is very likely that tz1b and tz2b are still detected and the time-of-flight of the second particle can be reconstructed by sumzb=tz1b+tz2b. It is very unlikely to lose also sumzb in so far as it is much more unlikely to lose three sums than only two. Thus, for many pairs of particles impinging on the detector the dead time is significantly reduced.
With this method and a detector according to the present invention a mean pulse-pair resolution of approximately 10 ns or less, preferably approximately 5 ns or less, more preferably approximately 2 ns or less can be achieved.
In the case of ions arriving with identical flight times, where a prior art crossed wire anode cannot provide any position or time-of-flight for any particle, the device according to the present invention provides the two-dimensional positions and time-of-flight of both particles uniquely. When the two particles are spatially separated enough the times: tx1a, tx1b, tx2a, tx2b, ty1a, ty1b, ty2a, ty2b, tz1a, tz1b, tz2a, tz2b can be measured yielding unique x and y positions for each ion. Also the time-of-flight of both particles is known by, for example, sumxa=tx1a+tx2a. In this case, even a pulse-pair resolution of zero can be achieved.
In a preferred embodiment the conductive members comprise a pair of conductors, preferably metallic wires forming a Lecher line for better signal transmission on the lines. The wires are preferably wound around a metallic base plate and are supported by a dielectric, preferably in the form of ceramic rods. One conductive member of each pair is preferably about 100 V more positive than the rear side of the MCP stack, and the other one about 200 V more positive. Differential amplifiers are preferably used for the amplification of the signals arriving at the terminating ends of the conductive members. A differential amplifier includes two inputs and the difference signal between the two inputs is amplified. Advantageously, any noise on the wires is suppressed.
It is advantageous to determine the position by the time differences for example tx1axe2x88x92tx2a or tx1bxe2x88x92tx1b whenever possible because this exploits the resolution of each of two TDC-channels. Using the time difference may therefore improve the detector resolution by up to a factor of two.
Preferably, the position of one or more primary particles is determined in two dimensions for two-dimensional imaging. In a preferred embodiment an MCP or stack of MCPs is used to convert the primary particles into clouds of electrons inducing signals on the conductive members. A gas proportional avalanche chamber may be also used in the conversion stage.
It is advantageous to determine the time-of-flight preferably by calculating the time sums, for example sumxa=tx1a+tx2a and/or sumxb=tx1b+tx2b, yielding the time-of-flight of the first and second primary particles, respectively. A triple redundancy is achieved by the three conductive members in the x, y and z-directions.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention a high resistance layer is located between the conductive members and the MCP stack. Preferably, the electron cloud of the MCP is collected by the high resistance layer causing capacitively induced signals on the conductive members. In this case, the MCP stack and the high resistance layer can be inside the vacuum and the conductive members can be outside the vacuum divided by a dielectric wall through which the electromagnetic signals are coupled.
In another preferred embodiment three conductive members are provided with an angle of 60xc2x0 or substantially 60xc2x0 between each other.
In yet another preferred embodiment the conductive members are printed on a dielectric substrate like a printed circuit board for cheap and simple production.
In a further preferred embodiment a fluorescent screen, preferably a phosphor screen, is provided adjacent the conductive members for creating scintillation light optically visualising the two-dimensional position of the electromagnetic pulse. The secondary scintillation light may be used to further improve multi-hit properties by providing position information when the particle impacts lie within the pulse-pair resolution of the delay-line anode. A CCD-camera or CCD-chip is advantageously used to directly image the scintillation light. An electrically isolated grid is advantageously disposed between the electrically isolated phosphor screen and the conductive members. Preferably the clouds of electrons generated by the impact of the primary particle are accelerated before impact on the phosphor screen to increase the output of secondary scintillation light.